I notice that someone just deleted an inappropriate topic in the Cooking & Eating forum.

However, the poster, a new member, remains a member even though it looked as if s/he joined exclusively for the sake of inviting C & Z members to click on the links provided so that cookies would be added to our accounts.

There are a number of new members who either have a warped sense of humor or are ridiculously transparent in chosing "Debt Consolidation" and "Grand Casino" as their monikers for the forum.

Is a new screening process necessary? Should a new member be banned as soon as it's clear motives are not in keeping with the purpose of this forum?

Joined: 29 Sep 2004Posts: 1196Location: buried under a pile of books somewhere in Adelaide, South Australia

Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 11:32 pm Post subject:

jenjen, to be honest, I think the moderators have the situation pretty well under control. As we are scattered throughout the globe, there is usually not much time between an unwanted post making its unwelcome appearance and its deletion.

And come on folks, let's get this into perspective. We're all adults here, we are all pretty internet savvy and I doubt that anyone visiting a Food Forum would be silly enough to click on a link to an 'x'-rated site, or online gambling or whatever else these posters want to throw at us. It all gets deleted sooner rather than later and in the meantime it should just be ignored.

These posts are an unfortunate by-product of the Internet, but personally I'd rather keep using the 'net with all its fantastic benefits and just ignore the spam, phishing, unwelcome posts on my favourite forums and other inconveniences. 'Cos that's all they are, inconvenient.

Clotilde is in the process of getting her manuscript ready so has other things to think about than unwelcome members at the moment. She deals with them when she can. So please, give her some space, and let us deal with the unwelcome posts as we find them.

Thanks, Judy_________________Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

Judy, Its kind of you to speak on behalf of Clotilde's , but realistically it is Clotilde's blog, and writing a cooking book shouldn't prevent her from keeping up to date with our comments on this subject and the spam matter in general _________________a minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips

I second Alisa's comments and reiterate we're all adults. It's our responsibility to make sure that we pay attention to what we're clicking while we're here._________________L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

Thank you so much, again, for bringing these questionable posts to our attention. Keeping the boards clean is a day-to-day fight, and it's great to see that other forum members are pitching in to help the moderators and myself stay on top of things.

If I had a magic lamp I would definitely make the wish of a spam-free internet, with lots of kittens and rainbows but no pills and no casinos, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, all we can do is live with it and try to keep the annoyance to a minimum.

Deste - Regarding the fake users, I normally delete them as soon as I see them -- I just haven't been able to do so over the past few days. But I have just sifted through the list a moment ago, and deleted the ones that seemed fishy...

Wishing you all a delightful day/evening depending on your time zone,
Clotilde.

Dear Clotilde and all the Moderators,
Just want to thank you all for the diligence in making our forum clean and enjoyable. I haven't been able to visit very much lately but I truly appreciate that we have a group who cleans up for all of our pleasure. Thank you also for all those sharp eyes catching the nasty entries and bringing them to the attention of Clotilde and the Moderators.
Best regards to all!_________________"A man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry."

Alert. Not fond of sounding like the KGB, but I hope singling out culprits* helps curb the practice of exploiting this forum:

Please get rid of the new member idr and new ad allegedly for Hermes handbags in the Other things forum. This person is trying to post additional ads as a kind of signature line without paying Clotilde for the service.

I think there should be a screening process for new members as there is on other forums.

Another suspect besides idr is:

tonylondon (I believe some "capture" links or ads were posted by him/her)